A Weekend Getaway

'A weekend getaway' - In Singapore this phase conjures images of going to Sentosa or for the more adventurous, Malaysia. However this is where the sheer size of India makes this phase more exciting and in true sense fun. Presented with the opportunity to experience a true weekend getaway, 2 friends and I took off for the weekend. We headed to the cool hill top of Matheran. Matheran is a beautiful hill station in Mahrashtra. It is the only hill station where any motor vehicles are banned. What you get there is clean, fresh, cool and unpolluted air. It was a welcome change from any other city in India; more so compared to Mumbai. The 3 of us took off from my flat in Mumbai, our backpacks slung over our shoulders, armed with water bottles, sunscreen and shades. We made the brave journey on the decently crowded local trains, changing once to reach Neral. There were tried our luck in vain to procure tickets for the recently reopened toy train to Matheran. Unfortunately we missed the last tickets by one uncleji who cut our queue!!! (I hope that uncle is denied the use of his juices by some exotic fruit of Jamaica….)

So we proceeded to Matheran by taxi, winding up the mountain roads by dangerous speeds, clutching onto each other trying to defy Newton’s Laws of Motions at each turn and trying to capture the natural beauty all around us. Upon reaching the top we were greeted with the lovely weather and clean air we so longed for and which tempted us to the place. Savouring a yummy breakfast in record time, we moved on to finding a decent and affordable accommodation for ourselves. There were touts aplenty, and we were sought out by 2 of them. So eager were they to trap us in their “wonderful” deals that 2 of them hung outside the restaurant as we had our breakfast. Deciding that there was no harm in checking out what these gentlemen had to offer, we took off with them to check out what they had to offer. After being offered a ridiculous deal for a room, we followed the other man to what he proclaimed was “my own cottage”.

Surprisingly the place turned out to be a lot better than what I personally expected. The numero uno criterion was met by the clean, dry toilet in the room. After much haggling and emotional blackmail attempts we settled the rent amount of 1.5days. We dumped our backpacks, answered nature’s call(s) and rested our butts for a bit. All freshened up we took off towards the market, all the while snapping photos to no end. The 3 of us each had a camera. It was quite a sight to see each of us clicking away with our cameras at each other, each snapping the other snapping away. After winning a tough battle with our trigger happy fingers we finally managed to reach the market place.










Once there we were swamped with offers of horse riding. Being in the mood for full on adventure, we negotiated the price and mounted our respective horses. As easy as it may sound or look, it is not easy to mount a horse who stands as tall as or taller than you. Hence it is understandable when the thought of mounting and dismounting the creature 3 times made my insides twist. However after a while I got the hang of mounting it, though during dismounting I always screamed for Kanu to hold onto me as I came down. The cool thing was the fact that I was riding the horse on my own, no little local guy leading the horse or hitting it. Just me and my darling Mittu (a parrot’s name for a horse…).

Getting the hang of horse riding we visited 5 points around the hill. At each point our fingers would get trigger happy once more, our mouths ‘oooing’ and ‘aahing’ at the natural beauty and our bodies stiffening at the sight of the sheer drops and almost vertical slops. Finally we trotted back to the market on our horses, feeling proud, sitting straight and laughing at poor 1^st timers looking terrified on their horses, conveniently choosing to forget that we too were in the same situation 2 hours ago. Once off the horses our stomachs politely reminded us and not so politely made people around us know that we needed to have lunch. So off we went in search of food, non-veg of course, down the streets of the market. As soon as we began our food hunt, rain clouds threatened to relieve themselves on us at any point. We quickened our pace and soon had ourselves seated in a restaurant. As luck would have it, the heavens poured their blessings just as we made ourselves comfortable indoors. As we devoured our tasty meal, we enjoyed the scene unfolding in the rain. Horses being led aside, children being pulled out of the rain, vendors frantically trying to cover their wares, couples getting cosy in the resulting cold and my favourite, the corn seller setting up his stall. Even though I was having a delicious meal that more than stuffed me to the max, my mouth was watering as I saw the corn vendor set up his stall. It was no surprise, to me at least, when I headed straight for the corn as we left the restaurant. The heavy rains had reduced to a drizzle and we stood next to the stall enjoying the hot and spicy roasted sweet corn.
















The unexpected rains washed away with them our plans of catching the sunset. Faced with a jackpot of hours to spend in our cottage, we started hunting for a pack of playing cards. On the way we picked up some yummy walnut chocolate fudge for our cottage party. We found our deck of playing cards and also had pan. It was Param’s 1^st proper pan and she was overwhelmed by the size of it. She was effectively quiet for a good 10-15min after I stuffed the pan in her mouth. But Param really took the cake when we started playing 3-2-5. It was her 1^st time playing; Kanu and I totally wacked her. It was hilarious to see the expression on her face as she realised she had lost yet again. The most priceless was when 1hour into the game and after yet another ridiculous loss she exclaimed “fuck la!”… I laughed for a good 10min at the incredulous manner in which she said that.
After playing for hours and Param finally winning a game or two, we were too exhausted to even open our eyes. As we readied for bed I got the shock of my life as a frog jumped into the room. I shrieked and lunged onto the bed, refusing to even hang my legs over the ledge. The frog leapt and croaked around for a bit before disappearing back into the darkness from which it had emerged. That night the 3 of us slept like babies in the peace and quiet one can only experience living in the middle of a jungle. Having a good 11hour of sleep, we woke up the next morning fresh and raving hungry.

We took off towards the base of Matheran having packed and said our good byes to the cottage and the family living there. Once again we were mesmerised by the beauty of the place and we strained to capture if only a fraction of the beauty on our cameras. 20-30min later and much more hungry we reached the base and settled to have our lunch. Lunch consisted of totally sumptuous chicken biryani and vegetable raita. We dug into the food like scavengers and ate our fill in record time. The next thing we knew we were seated in the shared taxi back to Neral, waving our hands to the fast disappearing scenes of Matheran and her natural beauty.

It was a great weekend getaway with the best company of Param and Kanu. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I wish I could have caught the toy train, seen the sunset, done more horse riding and eaten one last roasted corn… Well now I have a “valid” reason to go back to the hills of Matheran.